#Exhibit of the Month

One of the great technical achievements that revolutionized the idea of time and space, opening a new era in the history of communication, is telegraphy. It is based on the transmission of electrical signals through a cable over long distances, allowing people to communicate instantly. The telegraph spread very quickly and a network of wires stretched around the world.

In 1837, the American painter and physicist Samuel Morse invented the first electromagnetic device for telegraphy, patented in 1840. To send messages by wire, Morse developed in 1838 a simple code of dots and dashes, which represented the letters of the alphabet, known as "Morse code ".

Both Morse code and the telegraph machine were improved over time, with the telegraph becoming the most widespread system of communication and information transmission for more than a century, until the advent of the Internet. The telegraph system consisted of a series of stations repeaters along the transmission line route. Each station had an operator who received and transmitted messages by telegraph. The Morse machine transmitted about 25 words per minute, which were recorded in code on a paper tape. The operator in charge of transmitting the message would decode it and write it on paper using a special typewriter.

In Bessarabia, the telegraph entered in 1860: on April 8, the Bender telegraph station began its activity, and on April 24, the one in Chisinau, following the construction of the first Odesa-Chisinau-Leova telegraph line. Currently, telegraph services have been discontinued. The only ones who still use coded communication are radio amateurs.

The Morse telegraph machine shown comes from the Osinoostrovsky electrotechnical plant, Soviet Union, and dates back to 1934. The exhibit was restored by Mihail Culașco.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

„Bone Processing Art from Prehistoric Times to the Pre-Modern Period”

10-30 November 2011

In ancient times, large quantities of raw material obtained owing to cattle-breeding and hunting favored the development of bone and horn processing. This work has evolved from a simple home occupation to a true art, the pieces of which are made with great thoroughness, skill, aesthetic sense and artistic taste. Being easy to process, bone and horn provided a greater freedom of expression allowing the creation of an impressive range of objects by use of multiple techniques, such as cutting, polishing, engraving, etc. Paleolithic and Neo-Eneolithic sites of Trinca, Butești, Cosăuți, and Brânzeni, settlements and necropolises of Trifăuți, Săcărăuca, Dănceni, Ruseștii Noi, Costești, Vulcănești, Giurgiulești, etc., as well as the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, and Middle Ages sites, offer the largest range of materials and pieces of art and jewelry, exotic objects of rare beauty and diversity.

The exhibition „Bone Processing Art from Prehistoric Times to the Pre-Modern Period" brings together the most representative artifacts - tools and objects of bone, horn, and boars' tusks found as a result of archaeological investigations during the second half of the 20th - early 21st centuries in the sites, settlements, and necropolises in Prut-Dniester area, dated from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages. These can be classified as working tools, weapons, pieces of art or jewelry.

In the category of bone tools, the most commonly found there are awls of various sizes, needles, decorated chisels and daggers. Among the horn objects there are parts of agricultural and household tools and weapons. Pieces of art and jewelry take a special place in the exhibition - anthropomorphic pendants of bone, plaques, buttons, beads, and other objects reflect the artistic and aesthetic tastes of the natives.